Antonia Fraser

Standard Name: Fraser, Antonia
Birth Name: Antonia Pakenham
Styled: Lady Antonia Pakenham
Married Name: Lady Antonia Fraser
Married Name: Lady Antonia Pinter
The writing of AF , who published her first book in 1954 and remains active in the early twenty-first century, falls into several distinct categories. She engaged first in children's writing, then in historical scholarship, much of it biographical and concerned with the lives of women in particular, then in detective fiction. She has also published journalism and edited anthologies. Most highly regarded as a historian, she has also had success with her thrillers and recent memoirs.
Black-and-white portrait photo of Antonia Fraser, 23 January 1969. She has long blonde hair which is half-up, and wears a white blouse with a lacy collar under a dark vest. She has long lower eyelashes.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Cultural formation Harold Pinter
Pinter's working-class roots were always emphasized in the media, particularly at the time of his marriage to Antonia Fraser , an earl's daughter. But Fraser argues that although technically born into the working class, he...
Cultural formation Marina Warner
In England, MW had a comfortable middle-class upbringing. Her godfather was crime reformer Lord Longford (father of historian and novelist Antonia Fraser ). A writer, Violet Trefusis , was her godmother and another novelist, Lawrence Durrell
Dedications Harold Pinter
HP 's Poems and Prose, 1949-1977 was published in 1978 (dedicated to Antonia Fraser ) and revised as Collected Poems and Prose in 1986.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
Fraser, Antonia. Must You Go?. Random House of Canada, 2010.
89
Family and Intimate relationships Judith Kazantzis
JK 's eldest sister won fame as a writer specialising in history, historical biography, and detective stories under her first married name of Antonia Fraser .
Family and Intimate relationships Harold Pinter
HP intended to marry Antonia Fraser on the eve of his fiftieth birthday, but at the last moment Vivien Merchant refused to sign the decree absolute.
Fraser, Antonia. Must You Go?. Random House of Canada, 2010.
120-1
Family and Intimate relationships Harold Pinter
HP and the writer Lady Antonia Fraser fell in love early in 1975. He told his wife, Vivien Merchant, about this in late March and a month later moved out of their shared home to...
Friends, Associates Ruth Rendell
Winterson said, She was the mother I never had—wise, benign, loving and always there.
qtd. in
Brooks, Libby. “Ruth Rendell: Dark lady of whodunnits”. The Guardian, 3 Aug. 2002, pp. 16-19.
19
RR 's other literary friends included Antonia Fraser and P. D. James . Her friendship with Peter Kemp dated from...
Friends, Associates Edna O'Brien
After her move to London, her successful literary career made EOB a friend of such writers as Mordecai Richler , Philip Roth , Antonia Fraser , and Harold Pinter .
Bennett, Ronan. “The Country Girl’s Home Truths”. Guardian Unlimited, 4 May 2002.
1
Literary responses Harold Pinter
He had heard the news of the award on 13 October, and soon learned that it had transformed his life into that of a celebrity. He was too ill to travel to Stockholm for the...
Literary responses Marghanita Laski
Reviews were mixed. The San Francisco Chronicle called this a tour-de-force of its kind,, a little jewel of horror. The Times Literary Supplement dismissed it as surprisingly sentimental and not a very original story...
Literary responses Nancy Mitford
The Blessing did not do so well as its two predecessors; Antonia Fraser feels that it marked a decline in fictional achievement.
Fraser, Antonia. “A Most Superior Street”. Spectator.co.uk. Champagne for the brain.
NM wrote that My Blessing has had the most awful reviews you ever...
Literary responses Nancy Mitford
Historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote in the Manchester Guardian: All who admired The Pursuit of Love will be delighted to hear that its characters have appeared again, this time in fancy dress. They...
Literary responses Eleanor Farjeon
In response to the broadcasting of Kings and Queens in 2002, both Antonia Fraser and John Julius Norwich confessed that as children they had learned all their history from these poems; the reprint quickly sold...
Literary responses Margaret Forster
Another historical biographer, Antonia Fraser , responded positively (in the Sunday Times) to MF 's unusual emphasis in this book, and appreciated its accomplished mixture of skillful narrative and psychological insight.
qtd. in
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
155
Literary responses Harold Pinter
The final speech in A Kind of Alaska made Antonia Fraser (seeing it in the theatre for at least the second time) begin to sob, and continue to weep uncontrollably after the curtain came down...

Timeline

1 January 1916: The British edition of Vogue (an American...

Building item

1 January 1916

The British edition of Vogue (an American fashion magazine) began publishing from Condé Nast in Hanover Square, London.
Winship, Janice. Inside Women’s Magazines. Pandora, 1987.
166
White, Cynthia L. Women’s Magazines 1693-1968. Michael Joseph, 1970.
90
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Spawls, Alice. “Does one flare or cling?”. London Review of Books, Vol.
38
, No. 9, 5 May 2016, pp. 40-2.

23 April 1975: A major demonstration was held in Belgrave...

Writing climate item

23 April 1975

A major demonstration was held in Belgrave Square, London, in support of Public Lending Right.
Fraser, Antonia. Must You Go?. Random House of Canada, 2010.
16

1984: The Authors' Foundation was set up to make...

Writing climate item

1984

The Authors' Foundation was set up to make awards to writers: it marked the centenary of the Society of Authors and had help from the Royal Literary Fund ; it had Antonia Fraser and Michael Holroyd

Texts

Fraser, Antonia. “A Most Superior Street”. Spectator.co.uk. Champagne for the brain.
Fraser, Antonia. A Splash of Red. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981.
Fraser, Antonia. Boadicea’s Chariot: The Warrior Queens. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988.
Fraser, Antonia. Cool Repentance. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982.
Fraser, Antonia. Cromwell: Our Chief of Men. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973.
Fraser, Antonia, editor. “Introduction”. The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, Wiedenfeld and Nicholson, 1975, pp. 9-18.
Fraser, Antonia. Jemima Shore at the Sunny Grave and Other Stories. Bloomsbury, 1991.
Fraser, Antonia. Jemima Shore’s First Case and Other Stories. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1986.
Fraser, Antonia. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Heirloom Library, 1954.
Fraser, Antonia. King James VI of Scotland, I of England. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974.
Fraser, Antonia. Marie Antoinette: The Journey. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2001.
Fraser, Antonia. Mary, Queen of Scots. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969.
Fraser, Antonia. Mary, Queen of Scots. Franklin Library, 1981.
Fraser, Antonia. Must You Go?. Random House of Canada, 2010.
Fraser, Antonia. Must You Go?. Weidenfeld, 2010.
Fraser, Antonia. My History. Orion, 2015.
Fraser, Antonia. “Optical Research”. Lives for Sale: Biographers’ Tales, edited by Mark Bostridge, Continuum, 2004, pp. 113-17.
Fraser, Antonia. Our Israeli Diary. Oneworld Publications, 2017.
Fraser, Antonia. Oxford Blood. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1985.
Fraser, Antonia. Political Death. Heinemann, 1994.
Fraser, Antonia. Quiet as a Nun. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1977.
Fraser, Antonia. The Cavalier Case. Bloomsbury, 1990.
Fraser, Antonia. The Gunpowder Plot: Terror & Faith in 1605. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1996.
Fraser, Antonia. The King and the Catholics. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2018.
Fraser, Antonia. The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1992.